I got this idea from LM_NET to make these great, fun bottles to use on my circulation when the students are waiting their turn to checkout materials. I took 16 oz water bottles and filled them with small objects with rice. I have been collecting small Barbie and Polly Pocket items from my 10-year-old daughter to put inside the bottles (a shoe for Cinderella, hair for Rapunzel, a mirror for Snow White, a duck for the Ugly Duckling for starters) .

We just finished coloring the rice to go into the bottles too. It was fun! I used 1 cup of rice, 1 tsp alcohol, and I started with 6 drops of food coloring. I put it all inside a sandwich-sized zippered baggie and kneaded until the rice was well coated. Spread the rice on a cookie sheet to dry. I used only two colors at a time inside the bottle. I don’t want it to be too “busy” inside that the students can’t find the objects. I have another bottle with a bowling pin, a flipper, 2 medals and a water bottle as a sports theme. For a technology themed bottle I have a watch, computer mouse, camera, and a cell phone. That Barbie sure has great accessories!

I made a printout of the items inside. I glued them to tag board, cut the edges with scalloped scissors and added them to the neck of the bottle with curling ribbon. Someone on LM_NET suggested to just have the number of items on the top of the cap for students to know how many items to look for. I can always take off the ribbons and do it that way too. Don’t forget to glue the tops on when you are done. I used gorilla glue.

Here is a sample of one of the printouts. In the middle picture you can see the blue hair brush peeking out in the red/blue bottle.
Treasure Bottle 1
Can you find the following items
1 pink hair braid                                      
1 pink shoe
1 blue shoe                                                                    
1 blue hair brush                                           
1 grey mirror                                                          
1 purple crown
What do these items have in common?
Can you name the Dewy number where the items belong?         

I’m trying to keep the bottles with Dewey themes. The sample above is of fairytales 398.2, the other bottles are technology and sports.